Unlikely Guardian
by yornma
Summary: What was supposed to be routine retrieve mission turns out to be a bit more than Peter bargained for as he finds a survivor of a terrible massacre and soon finds himself paying for her care and trying to keep Yondu from selling her to the highest bidder...Female OC, Peter Quill, Yondu. Part 1 of 3
1. Boredom

Chapter 1 - Boredom

Tap, tap, tap

"Mmph," she murmured sleepily at the noise and heard tittering, frowning slightly as her consciousness slowly came back to her she realized she was no longer in the woods sitting on sun-warmed grass, but in class.

Tap, tap, tap

Opening her eyes and blinking slowly waiting for them to adjust she saw her professor's silver fingers tapping patiently on the tablet on her desk.

Tap, tap, tap

She groaned inwardly knowing that it would mean another report going home to her parents. Which meant another lecture on how she was the first generation to have the privilege of not being prepped for war or whatever her father rambled on about.

"Good of you to join the rest of us, Adrynellis. Now, as I was saying…"

He stated trying to hide his amusement as he moved away from her desk and returned to his spot at the front of the room to resume his teaching.

She readjusted herself in her seat, played with her dreadlocks for a moment absently twisting them while trying to listen, but failing as she noticed movement in the corner of her eye, turning her head slightly to look out the window she saw smoke billow in the distance. Frowning slightly, it wasn't the usual brown colored smoke that was produced when there was underbrush burning, this smoke was black and before she could speculate further a loud crash caused her to jump, he had dropped a book on the floor and looked at her pointedly as he bent over to pick it up.

She groaned inwardly, he was getting good - too good- at knowing when her attention wandered, but then again it was the price she paid for having him as a cousin and living under the same roof.

Slinking down even further into her chair she watched idly as he began to go over basic engine components while the rest of the class seemed enthralled she was rolling her eyes she was already rebuilding shuttle engines in the spare room with her cousin.

The dull tone sounded jolting her from another daydream and signaling the end of class as well as the end of the day.

"I will see you all tomorrow, remember to go over today's lessons and there will be a quiz."

She made a move to leave her desk hoping to be able to sneak out before he had a chance to stop her, his citrine eyes landed squarely on her. No such luck, she sat back in her chair and waited as the rest of the room cleared out.

He strode over to her desk, pulling a chair from the desk in front of her and sitting in it to face her.

"Addy," he said with a sigh of resignation, his waist long black dreadlocks rolled to his side, metallic beads clicking softly against each other he brushed them back.

She looked down, unwilling to meet his eyes to see the look of disappointment in them.

"Look, I know you're bored. I get it, I really do. We both know you're good and you could be great, but you can't advance until next semester, which means you're stuck with me until then, okay?"

She nodded mutely.

"Do you think you can make an effort to stay awake for the whole class?" he asked hopeful.

Another nod.

"You know what happens now."

Her dreadlocks bobbed up and down the charms on a few of them chiming melodiously.

"Good, now go before you miss your shuttle. The letter will appear on your tablet by the time you get home."

The shuttle ride home was normally uneventful and filled with the same view of the canopy of trees that she had seen for the past ten years. As the shuttle banked softly around a small pond one of many that connected to a river that turned into a waterfall opening up to the ocean, she sighed heavily turning away from the window pulling out her tablet and pulled up her assignment.

Silver fingers flying over the screen with an uncanny deftness that came only from experience, matching engine parts with their names and how one fit into the other and which parts had to be installed with care or it could cause the entire engine to overheat and -

The shuttle lurched forward suddenly causing her head to meet the back of the seat in front of her. A few of the other passengers were thrown a bit further but no one seemed to be injured, she rubbed her head slightly, feeling for and finding the lump that would surely raise before the morning. Bending down quickly she felt the floor underneath the seat in front of her for her tablet.

As she was going to settle back into her seat she heard a few gasps and murmurs, turning she saw them pressed against the windows to her right looking at what should have been the thickest part of the rainforest where the canopy of the trees barely let in any light, but instead was engulfed in orange flames some of the trees had already fallen under their own weight the heat of the flames warmed the windows and they gasped hearing wood splinter as one of the trees in the path began to crack, the shuttle lurched forward causing everyone to fall back slightly as it sped through and the tree fell with a loud crash behind them engulfing the path behind them in flames.

The shuttle finally came to a stop with a jolt about twenty minutes later, the passengers grumbling as they got off, she tried not to notice the distinctive shudder the machine gave as though it was a living being giving exhaling its last breath.

The wind suddenly shifted and the smoke from the path they had just left came billowing in like an army marching into a battle that would surely mean their death. She started walking on the path that she thought was there that led to her father's house, pausing for a moment to regain her bearings, a hand grabbed her shoulder and she whirled around to see it was her father who put a cloth over her mouth.

"Quickly." he shouted and led her down the path, she made a move to stop him but he urged her on, leading her towards the community center and inside, there he removed the cloth. She blinked away the ash that had gotten into her eyes and looked around, she was in the large wheel shaped atrium, a few of her neighbors were there, a few with burns others coughing and gagging.

"What's going on?" she asked trying to sound braver than she felt.

He remained stoic as always, "We're under attack, come."  
>She tried to search his face for any sort of clue as to what was going on,"Where?"<p>

"To the shuttle downstairs."

"I thought it was only a prototype."

The ground shook with an explosion and she nearly fell forward if not for his large steady hand on her shoulder.

"Remember those engines you were working on last week?"

She nodded.

"Well, we're about to test them out."

She couldn't help but feel a little bit excited despite the circumstances.

"Nymthir, good you made it and Adrynellis, wonderful. Where's Nesian?" the familiar face of the constable appeared from the cockpit of the shuttle.

"Right here." his voice came from behind them.

"Great, let's get going before he finds out we're trying to escape."

While her father moved towards the cockpit, she found a seat in an empty row and sat, buckling herself in. Her cousin sat next to her and elbowed her slightly.

"Excited to see how your engines do?"

She nodded, not wanting to admit her excitement.

"All right that's everyone then." the constable said and pulled the door shut and twisted the knob to seal it. Getting back into the cockpit and flipping a few of the switches the machinery around them began to come alive as they were pushed back into their seats as the shuttle surged forward, the shattering of glass was heard around them as it pierced the glass ceiling and continued steadily heading into the sky, it was then she saw the damage that had truly been done to the forests, half of it was on fire the rest of it was burned. The shuttle continued on, obvious to the chaos it was leaving behind, pushing through the lower, then upper atmospheres,until it began to right itself and level out it was then she caught sight of the ominous black twisting rectangular figure hovering over their planet.

"What is he doing here? We signed the treaty, surely Ronan cannot attack without consequences." a voice said nearly squeaked behind her.

"Who is going to stop him? Nova Corps are days away on Xandar." the man sitting beside her replied.

"We must fight." someone across the row said determinedly.

"No. We signed the treaty, that alone should give us immunity from this uncalled for attack." Nesian replied.

"Did you see what his army did?" the man behind her

"I heard that he's after the plans." the squeaky woman again.

"What could he possibly would he want with those?" her cousin asked.

"What plans?" She asked her curiosity getting the better of her.

The silence fell thick and Nesian leaned over ruffled her hair playfully.

"Hey, that's going to take forever to retwist." she huffed and began the slow process of doing so.

"Good, that outta teach you to stop eavesdropping."

She opened her mouth to retort but the ship jolted from a sudden impact and then another and another until their shuttle began to slowly tilt forward, the machinery surrounding them stopped whirling and died leaving them in a near deafening silence. As the ship tilted further downward and began to descend slowly at first then gaining speed, the woman behind her screamed and the husband let out a small shout of his own.

Adrynellis swallowed her own scream as something hit the wing and caused them to spin hurling towards the gray surface of one of their moons.

Dull throbbing pain brought her back to consciousness and she found the orange sun blaring down upon her, she blinked slowly feeling as if she had been heavily drugged, thoughts came even slower as she tried to piece together what had happened she remembered being in the shuttle and it being shot down and… nothing. She tried to move only to find something sprawled across her lap, it was the constable who had been thrown from the cockpit back. Turning she saw the rest of the wreckage of the shuttle around her cracked open as though nothing more than a nut shell, wires, parts and people scattered everywhere.

Nudging him gently with her knee to try to wake him, he groaned softly but made no move to get up. She nudged him again a bit more forcefully and he moved slightly turning his head to face her she saw the angry red gash from his forehead to his neck oozing blood, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped back over her.

Fighting the urge to gag she reached underneath him, trying to find the latch to her seatbelt, finding it she undid it and let out a small sigh of relief, she was halfway there.

"Find any survivors and bring them to me." a harsh metallic voice screamed.

She cringed and began to wish she had shared the constable's fate.

It didn't take long for the gray armored soldiers to find her and pull her roughly from the wreckage, pushing her towards the others that had survived. Among them was her father and her cousin who was cradling his left arm protectively to his chest. He gave her a tight smile and a nod glad to see she was among the living.

"Move it." the blue humanoid female screamed in a steely voice leaving no room for pleasantries nor excuses.

Those that were left and able to stand were forcibly marched towards the gaping entrance of the cave that held the ore mines.

The smell of rot assaulted her nose and she coughed trying to repress a gag.

"You will suffer as my people have suffered." The armored man sneered as they limped and dragged themselves towards the entrance of the mining caverns.

They were marched, a few dragged further and further down into the deepest levels of the mine, those that tried to stop for a breathe were kicked, poked and prodded or worse.

The narrow passageway finally gave way to a large open cavern, the armored blue skinned man stood before them, regarding them coolly.

"Your kind has blood the of the Kree on its hands and yet you try to deny the truth. Your failed escape only proved to me that you are willing to kill your own people to protect a lie."

"It doesn't exist." a out of breath, weary voice came from her right, turning she saw it was her cousin.

"Are you willing to die believing that?"

He hesitated glancing at her father. The man caught it and strode over to face him.

"The Codices." He demanded gruffly.

"The Codices are nothing more than a myth," her father spat angrily at the Kree warrior, despite the fact that he was very much unarmored and outnumbered.

"I have killed those who have said the same." The blue skinned man warned, his voice low and rumbling.

"We have nothing that you could possibly want from us."

Nesian did not respond, but his amethyst eyes blazed with an unrelenting fury, a look that she caused her to look away afraid to meet his gaze for fear of being physically harmed by it.

The Kree's lips turned upwards into an malicious smile, "Your feeble attempt to flee has been in vain. Now that you have led me here, I will finish what I started on your planet. There will be nothing left here but ore, dust and now death."

The armored Kree moved suddenly with speed that should have been impossible for someone of his size, grabbing her father up by the collar so that they were face to face shaking him viciously, the wooden beads in his graying dreadlocks clanked noisily, "You have sealed the fate of your people."

Letting go he beckoned to the cyborg male to his right. It was then she caught the glimpse of shiny metal and recognized with a chill it was a weapon and the purpose it was going to serve.

She shouted a warning to her father, but he was too late as Ronan's hammer-like weapon swung high and crashed upon the back of her father's head, his skull caved in where the weapon made contact his scream died on his lips his eyes wide open in horror and pain. His body fell lifeless to the ground, mouth and eyes open for all eternity. Her scream like his died on her lips unable to tear herself away from the image of her father's broken body and wanting to hurl herself at the armored man and demand answers but she found herself unable to move her feet molded to the spot as the cold realization came upon her like icy fingertips on the back of her neck that eventually she too would be next.

"Anyone else care to lie?" The warrior bellowed, dark eyes scanning the remaining survivors. They were all too shocked in the sudden brutal death of their fellow comrade to even utter a word, there were was a muffled sob that broke the silence and reverberated in the cave.

Methodically he went through each and every one of the survivors, she watched each and everyone of them perish at the hands of the Kree. There were fewer and fewer left to for her to stand behind until she was the last. A sea of blood and bodies of her species surrounded her.

She had no tears left to shed now for they had long since been cried out, no longer able to stand she sat on the ground, knees hugged to her chest in an attempt to keep herself warm as the cold night air had crept into the cavern and chilled the place like an icebox.

"You." the weapon was pointed and her and despite her desire to scamper away she found herself lifted up by her thick dreadlocks and half walked/dragged towards him.

"Thanos calls, Ronan." The green skinned woman to his left stated.

"I am not yet finished." The Kree's eyes turned back to her, she tried to look away from him, but found that it was quite impossible, either from the fact that the blue cyborg female was holding her head to face him or that his purple eyes were so much like hers but filled with so much anger, she felt as though she could be devoured by the fires that raged in his eyes.

"Our father does not like to wait, it will only fuel his anger." The warrior woman replied, her tone remaining neutral.

"Very well, then," he growled, grabbing her harshly by the chin, his dark fingernails digging into her skin and he turned her head forcing her to look at the bodies around her then back to him, "Look before you as the once mighty and formable Onari empire have fallen to Ronan the Accuser. You are no longer worth my time"

He let her go and she fell against the cold body of the blue skinned woman who regained her death grip on arms, pulling them behind her.

"What would you like me to do with her?" metallic voiced female asked, dark eyes void of all emotion.

"Kill her." Came the bored reply as he turned away from her leaving her alone with the cyborg, leaden footsteps indicating his departure.

She felt her right arm being twisted until a loud crunch was heard, excruciating pain shot through her. Biting her upper lip in a feeble effort to silence the scream that burst forth, but her efforts only succeeded in muffling it. She was suddenly shoved down to the ground, landing hard on her good arm before she could move to try to adjust her weight, a boot pressed her squarely down on the shoulder of her injured arm pressing her further into the floor, she involuntarily whimpered. Suddenly there was silence, her ears strained to hear something ,anything, she made an attempt to move only to receive a heel digging into her shoulder blade threatening to separate tendon from bone. A scream ripped from her lips echoing in the underground cave.

"No one will come." A metallic voice said so close to her ear it caused her to start," they are all dead, as you will be."

"Nebula!" an angry female voice shouted in the distance.

"Coming sister." The annoyed reply came as something sharp pierced her side and back repeatedly she tried to cringe away from it, but found herself completely pinned down, she could do nothing but continue to scream as the wounds began to ooze warmth. After what seemed like a millennia the pressure on her back ease off but each breath she took felt like a thousand needles stabbing her repeatedly.


	2. Rescue

Chapter 2 - Rescue

20 hours later

He had barely gotten away with his own skin much less the units he bargained for, settling into the pilot's chair getting ready to take off when the comm beeped persistently, Yondu's image flashed on the screen.

He let it ring until he was safely into space setting it on autopilot and answering.

"Yew missed the meet." The Centaurian stated simply in a tone that was dangerously

"Yeah, well, I figured you were busy."

"Busy? I slaved to get that info."

"Slaved?" The Terran reiterated in disbelief

"Don' yew take that tune wit me, boy. I saved yew from bein' eaten. We Ravagers got a code, we don't steal from each other. " Yondu lectured.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "You called to lecture me?"

The Centaurian's face darkened," Yewr lucky yew ain't here. Got us all a job on K'nar IV, gittin some ore 'n supplies outta some mine."

"Sounds like something you can handle without me." he said making a move to turn off the screen.

"Job pays 25,000 units."

He froze. The Centaurian grinned, showing gold and white teeth," Figured tha' would get yewr attention. Yew have 4 hours to get 'ere."

With that the signal was terminated.

He cursed in Xandarian as the coordinates to the Eclector came up. It took the last bit of fuel in the Milano to get to them and Peter was greeted by Kraglin once he landed.

"Good to see ya Pete."

"Talked you into it too?"

He grinned.

"K'nar IV is a ore filled moon orbiting the planet Draie. There's reports that it's heavily guarded, but ore alone is worth 1.5 million units. Luckily, our buyer is paying twice as much for 2500 pounds of it. We need to split into four teams. One team takes care of the guards, two teams get the ore and the last team keeps the path open. Horuz, you'll be in charge of the last team, I'll be taking care of the guards, Yondu and Pete will lead the two teams in."

When they landed they found the twisted remains of a shuttle not too far from the entrance of the mining ores, Peter couldn't help but notice the bodies that were scattered around. He was beginning to feel that this mission was not going to go as planned. His hand rested on the hilt of his element gun as the hairs on the back of his neck began to rise as they walked through the entrance of the mines.

Kraglin did a quick sweep of the area with a scanner, waving his men ahead. Their boots crunching against the grey dirt beneath them. As they walked down the winding passageways for what felt like forever to the Terran, making their way deeper into the cavern, the dim mine lights barely provided enough to see outlines of the men in front of him.

One of jagged passageways was so narrow they had to file through one by one. A smell permeated the air, something stagnant and it wasn't the saltiness of sweat or dampness in the air.

The passageway suddenly gave way to a much larger room, wristlights were flicked on, it was then that he came to the realization that this wasn't just a mine it was a graveyard with dozens of bodies surrounding them in the early stages of decomposition. The smell of death hung in the air like a fog, Peter coughed trying not to gag.

"Come on ladies, we got ore to git." Yondu urged, making his way with his team towards the back of the cave where the large black containers held the treasure they were looking for.

He frowned, there was still something not right about this. Why go through the trouble of killing so many people and not take the one thing that was of value?

Trying not to focus on who would have done this and the whys, he meandered around the bodies trying his best not to step on limbs heading towards the ore when he felt eyes on him.

The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He grabbed his element gun raised ready to shoot when he saw two dim purple orbs about 25 yards away, he walked toward it.

The orbs got a little bit bigger and blinked slowly.

Blinked?

He frowned, lifting up his scanner to check the infrared signals, there was a faint signature. Whatever, or whoever it was, wasn't going to be alive very much longer.

He moved a bit quicker, sweeping his flashlight ahead of him. Looking back and forth between his scanner and what was in front of him.

20 yards

The signal was gone, putting his flashlight down. Heart sinking, he had lost it. He stood still for a moment, waiting.

The faint purple orbs showed up again. He continued to move towards them, flicking his light onto the lowest setting.

15 yards

Another sweep of the scanner, the signal got a bit weaker, but was still there.

10 yards

The thought suddenly occurred to him, what if it was reptilian? He didn't mind rodents, but scaled creatures had a tendency to give him the creeps. He shuddered involuntarily at the thought.

5 yards

His jaw tightened with resolve, he was going to find whatever it was and make sure it was safe.

1 yard

He swept the flashlight slowly in front of him. He turned the light off for a moment hoping the orbs would show up, after several heartbreaking moments they did. He shone the light in their direction he heard a faint noise, like a whimper.

He stooped down, it was then he saw the owner of the orbs and the pool of purple blood surrounding the poor creature.

Without thinking he turned off the flashlight and went to scoop up the being, a raspy wheeze came from it- her. As he could tell by the tension in her facial features, she was very nearly on Death's door.

"You're going to be okay, kiddo." he said softly so only she could hear.

A sigh rippled through her body and she went limp in his arms.

He turned around to head back when he met the glowing red eyes of his Elder.

"'N what do yew thing yewr doin'?"

"She's alive." He gathered the girl closer to him protectively.

"An'?" The Centaurian's voice was indignant.

"She's badly injured."

"_An'_?"

"We should at least get her to a medical facility." he suggested, hopefully.

"Hear that boys? Quill here wants to be a hero." The leader of the Ravagers called behind him.

The men behind him snickered.

He began to walk away carrying the girl.

"'here yew going, boy?"

"She's going on the ship, with me."

A shrill whistle resounded in the air, the faint red glow of an arrow sliced through the dimness. Hovering near the unconscious girl's neck.

"How 'bout I jus put 'er out of 'er misery here and now?" he suggested darkly.

_Think fast, Pete._

"And lose a big score?"

"Wha' yewr sayin'?" Yondu's quered curiously.

"Look around you, everyone of them look like her. She's probably the last of her kind. I'm sure someone will be interested in owning the last of her species. Whatever it is."

The arrow hovered dangerously close for a few moments longer. Peter was very much thankful the girl didn't know how much danger she was in.

Uneasily silence for a moment before Yondu whistled calling his arrow back, bursting into a cheerful grin.

"That's why I kept yewr 'round as a younglin' Quill, yew got balls. Come boys, let's get the ship loaded up."

She couldn't discern what was real and what wasn't.

That was the first thing she noticed. There was also a blissful absence of pain.

Memories and thoughts floated through her mind with no real connection,

the Kree warrior dressed in dark armor, face painted purple eyes alight with rage-

the hammer crushing her father's skull-

the blue skinned cyborg grabbed her hair and pulling her back-

the crunch of her arm breaking-

all of it seemed as if she had been watching a movie on the holoscreen.

She had felt emotions run through her at different scenes, anger, confusion, sorrow, pain but none of it seemed real now.

Maybe it wasn't, maybe she had just stayed up too late again reading another fictional story about how her people had crushed their opponents single-handedly in battle again, freeing prisoners and taking hostages. Her father hated when she read those stories and she had to resort to sneaking them into her room for late night reading.

She tried to fight her way back to consciousness but found that she simply did not have the will to do so. There really was no reason to be conscious, her family, everyone she had loved and cared for were either dead on her home planet or laying in the cave. She wished for a moment she had known why this man had wanted them all dead. She remembered him vaguely mentioning a date some twenty-five years ago – before she had been born- her people had captured some Kree and had done experiments- was that it-was that was he had said? She frowned wishing she could remember more of what he said trying to explore more of that memory but she was halted by sudden rush of pain. It seared through her body awakening her muscles to agony and jolting her unwillingly to consciousness.

In opening her eyes, trying to blink back the brightness of the light above (?) ,she felt a pressure on her right arm, trying to pull it away only to hear and feel a stomach churning snap.

She screamed and jerked her arm away, her uninjured arm moving to hold it as she tried to move off of whatever it was that she was laying on.

Hands tried to restrain her, she fought against them, jarring her wounded arm in the process, the pain shot like electricity up her arm into her shoulder, chest burning through her lungs and ringing in her head.

She heard frantic voices for a moment, but couldn't make out the words as everything sounded garbled. She caught a glimpse of freedom for a moment and felt the faint pinch of skin and something being pushed underneath it.

She was not going to let them take her without some kind of fight, she-

Darkness again.

Well so much for the idea of fighting, she thought to herself with a scoff, sitting again in the darkness watching the memories float by.

The sound of objects crashing onto the floor only seemed to hasten his Elder's footsteps and Peter ran to try to keep up. When the doors slid opened revealing the sight of the medic in the middle of tightening a strap around his young patient's wrists.

"Before you ask; I had to re-break her arm to set it properly, she came to and well, as you see," he gesturing around the room, there was broken glass, syringes, various medicinal supplies strewn as though someone was trying to frantically escape," she was bit hysterical. I had to sedate her heavily and restrain her for her own good to keep from breaking the arm or injuring herself further."

Yondu let out a small chuckle," Well looks like we got ourselves a feisty one, eh, Pete?"

The Terran frowned, it was hard to believe the girl he had picked up on the planet not more than forty five minutes ago local time and caused this much chaos. He almost hated to think what she was capable of when she was healthy.

"'n don't worry, I got restraints for that too." The captain supplied with a smirk as if reading his thoughts.

Quill rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers, not really wanting to know why or how his Elder had restraints, some things were better left unasked.

"She gonna's need professional care, we're 'bout a day out from Tanaris, there's a medical facility there. Best I can do is keep 'er still."

"Well, then looks like we're setting a course for Tanaris. 'N Quill?"

"Yeah?"

"Yew better hope yew have the units to pay for it."

He sighed, heavily there went his hopes for a fuel stop and supply run.

He bent down to help the medic pick up the mess while his Elder turned on his boot heel and headed to the bridge.

"Good thing we're going to Tanaris, they can do a scan to make sure there's no permanent damage." The medic said as he began picking up the strewn items.

"Permanent damage?" The younger Ravager parroted confused.

The medic looked cautiously around for a moment before answering a hushed tone,"I gave her a dose that could knock out Yondu."

His eyes went wide, it was well known the tolerance that the Centaurian had to sedatives, he himself could only handle a quarter of the sedative and it still kept him out for a good 16 hours.

"Wh-"

"You do realize what she is, don't you?"

He shook his head dumbly.

The yellow skinned man sighed in frustration, "You needa learn a thing or two 'bout the species 'round here. She's an Onari. Her species is the reason for the treaty, both the Kree and Onari have been trying to kill off the other for centuries it looks like the Kree finally succeeded."

The Terran couldn't help but stare at the unconscious silver skinned girl on the bed before him, she didn't look dangerous. But then again after seeing the destruction she had caused he was beginning to wonder what exactly he had brought on board the Eclector in the first place.

"Don't think too hard, I'll have to treat you for smoke inhalation." The medic said drily," Yondu knows who and what she is. So I'm sure he has a plan. Just figured you ought to know in case you start to feel too protective."

"I'll try to keep that in mind."

She heard voices floating above her, none of which she recognized.

Words came to her but made no sense

broken,

ruptured,

lone survivor,

She tried to crawl her way back to consciousness, but something made her feel sleepy again and she drifted back into the darkness.

When she awoke again it was due to a sudden spasm in her back, she let out an involuntary cry in pain. Trying to move away from the pain or at least roll over to her side caused something to pull on her skin sending more waves of pain through her. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she tried to think of anything beside the pain. She caught a whiff of something strong and sterile.

She tried to open in her eyes only to be nearly blinded, blinking back the light she was able to make out the fuzzy shapes of things, her right arm was encased on a cast, she was in a white bed in some sort of medical facility.

A soothing voice came from above her, "It's okay, you're safe."

The light was dimmed significantly and she dared to open her eyes again, to see a figure looming above her. She jumped at the proximity of it, the figure backed away slightly giving way to a less fuzzy figure and into the shape of a pink skinned nurse, whose green eyes were filled with concern.

"I'm S'nara. "the woman said steadily,"I'm a nurse, you're on Tanaris in a hospital."

The silver skinned girl frowned slightly, trying to digest where she was, looking around for a moment she was indeed in some sort of room that looked like that of a medical facility. In looking at her surroundings she noticed a strange tube come from her left arm feeding into a bag hanging above her. Grimacing she moved to gently tug the tube out of her arm.

A gentle pink hand moved to stop her, "It's okay, you're safe." she pulled away inadvertently dislodging the tube and setting of an alarm that started beeping loudly.

She whimpered, trying to cover her ears from the noise, gathering her legs to her chest attempting to make herself smaller.

Heavy footfalls and faces appeared at the door moments later, people surrounding her trying to get her to lay back down, she tried to squirm away but there were too many holding her down, reconnecting the tube and holding her down while a pink skinned male approached with a needle.

He said something her brain refused to comprehend.

She screamed in her native tongue begging for them to stop, let her go anything that would get them to not inject her with whatever it was, but they looked at each other for a moment seemingly confused but the doctor proceeded injecting the orange filled liquid into her injured arm, emptying the contents.

They let go over her and she tried to move away from them but found her body maddeningly unresponsive. Her heart raced steadily, so this was how it was going to end. They were going to paralyze her and kill her.

Making a move to open her mouth and scream again, she found that nothing came out. She blinked suddenly dazed as everything started to blur around the edges, finding it suddenly extremely hard to keep her eyes open. Darkness claimed her again.

She awoke with a gasp, shooting forward into a sitting position, heart racing in her chest. Her surroundings were completely alien to her, but yet oddly familiar. She frowned deeply, white walls, the smell of sterile and the feel of cotton and bandages against her skin.

Before she could start to wiggle away, a voice called her name.

"Adrynellis."

She turned and saw the pink skinned nurse, minding her distance this time, but the concern still painted on her face.

S'nara, her brain supplied.

"Do you remember where you are?"

She frowned trying to grasp at the most recent memories, but there simply were none to be had. Making a move to shake her head a sudden wave of dizziness overcame her and she felt like she was going to fall off the bed. Hands steadied her, she flinched only slightly at the touch, too preoccupied with the sudden pitching and rolling of her stomach.

The bile was creeping steadily up her throat with each swallow, try as she might she just couldn't keep it down as she turned over the bed and vomited into the container that was held in front of her.

The smell of bile assaulted her nasal passages, her stomach continued to lurch violently. She dry heaved for a few moments more until there was nothing but stomach acid coming up.

The sudden movements caused the pain to come alive like a fire spreading rapidly in her back, legs and arms. A strangled cry of pain escaped her lips, what little energy she had had long since left her as she collapsed wearily into the hands on her back, gasping weakly for hands eased her back down into a laying position.

Something cool brushed her forehead and laid there, the coolness was removed for a moment and came back, she shivered slightly with relief. It felt so good. She couldn't remember anything feeling so good.

"You were in pretty bad shape when you first got here. Your guardians brought you in."

Her brow crinkled slightly at the term 'guardians'.

Who had found her and brought her here? Where was here again?

"We unfortunately had to cut your hair, it was a tangled mass," the nurse stated pulling her back to reality, "we wouldn't get to your head wound otherwise."

She blinked and moved her unbroken arm to her hair, a sob was caught in her throat,the shoulder length dreadlocks she had since she could remember were gone, in its place was a few inches of stringy white hair. Tears blurred her vision for a moment as she felt the room closing in on her, there was nothing left of who or what she was. She blinked letting the tears fall freely blurring her vision further and making her head drum loudly.

Turning her head to the side she sobbed into her pillow while the nurse stayed trying to calm her with soothing words which turn into soft humming until she cried herself to sleep.

Waking up still disoriented her, especially when there were nurses that weren't S'nara trying to check her vitals and draw blood. It took her several hours to recover from what she had heard referred to as an 'panic attack', so she was generally the last one on the floor to be checked and most times after being injected with something that made her too sleepy to resist the foreign hands on her.

On one particular morning/afternoon (?) she was enjoying the warmth of natural light of the day thankful that one of the nurses had offered to turn off the artificial light and open the blinds letting the sunlight flood in and relieve her eyes of the constant squinting that she had to do.

"Hey, kiddo, how you feeling?" a cheerful voice asked, pulling her from the drug induced haze she had been kept in for most of her stay, blinking slowly she turned her head to face the pale skinned man in the red jacket strolling into the room.

She vaguely remembered his presence in the beginning it was only a scent, not sterile like the rest of the room, but a light musk mixed in with clean. Before sitting he pulled a contraption out of his pocket that she had come to be fairly familiar with, it had black casing and was made of some rudimentary nonmetal type material and had a string with two wires attached came from the corner of the box and attached to two orange soft circular devices with an arch in the middle.

She looked at it curiously for a few more moments and caught her eyes trying to close several times, she shook her head slightly trying to clear her head. In attempt to ward of the effects of the painkillers, shaking she managed to loosen a tuft of white hair which she blew out of her face annoyed.

It was then she had a sudden idea, sitting up slightly she reached with her unbroken arm for the strand and twisted the tuft until it went from fuzzy to a bit of a formed dreadlock.

She continued from the right side of her forehead to her left silver fingers moving quickly through, while her right arm lay neatly in her lap. It was then she came across the bandage on her forehead, trying to get her fingernails underneath the edges to pull it off. It was hindering her progress after all.

"What are you-," he said then realized and got up to stop her,"Nu-uh"

She scowled.

"Nope."

She gave a frustrated huff, trying to push his hand away.

"Not happening."

She growled.

"You haven't been awake for a full day, much less an hour and you're already giving me attitude," he chuckled, lightly." I just saved your life, kiddo."

She turned her head, and used her casted arm to successfully push his hand away.

"Seriously? Suit yourself, just don't complain to me when you're in pain." came the resigned reply.

She tugged at the bandage, wincing slightly but then getting her fingers underneath it, finally pulled it off. Despite the pain of healing skin being pulled and the dull throbbing awakened in her head, she allowed herself a small smile.

"Since you insist on being stubborn," he commented fiddling with the orange contraption in his nap, she scowled at him, "I figured you would like to listen to some music since you're actually awake."

With a loud click of machinery, music started to fill the small room. She paused for a moment to listen, the melody was soft and peaceful she continued her ministrations until the front half her head was covered with little white twists, she paused for a moment and sighed heavily sinking back into the pillows exhausted, it had taken all the strength she had to start the twists again and it would take even more of that strength to keep twisting them day after day until they would twist on their own.

He hummed to the music and she found herself relaxing more and more, the warmth of the sun easing her headache and lulling her back into the haze.

It wasn't until the nurses came in for afternoon check that she had realized the she had fallen asleep.


	3. Ravagers

**Chapter 3 - Ravagers**

5 days later

"Your arm is healing nicely,"the pink skinned nurse gently moved her newly healed arm to the side, Adrynellis looked at it for a moment as if not recognizing it without the cast," you will be able to leave with your guardians later on. How are you feeling?"

S'nara held out a chart with different pictures describing the varying levels of pain. The left side was the least, the right was the most.

She pointed to the one closest to the end, the spasms of pain in her back and shoulders had eased mainly thanks to whatever it was they had injected into the tube in her arm earlier that morning when she had awoken screaming.

"Good," the nurse said with a smile, then looked up towards the door," looks like you've got a visitor. Hello Mr- Peter."

The pale skinned man with the red jacket gave her a cheeky smile,"How's she doing?"

"Much better. We did have to give her 17cc's of epitol, which will kick in shortly, so I suggest getting her to change soon so she can be discharged."

He nodded, turning to her," Good news kiddo. I got you some clothes. They're probably on the big side, but it's only temporary."

She tried to scowl at the clothes he handed her, but only managed to do it half-heartedly.

"Those are perfectly good clothes, they were mine when I was your age."

Adrynellis rolled her eyes, taking the clothes and trudging to the bathroom, closing the door behind her daring for a moment to look in the mirror finding a much more gaunt and bruised reflection returning her half-lidded stare. Turning away she slipped the pants on, struggling for a moment with the legs as her own legs didn't seem to want to co-operate once on she realized they were a bit too short for her resting on the back of her shins.

Next was the shirt, pulling it over her head she found it hard to find the sleeves and finally found them pulling it down, the faint hint of oil and engines hit her bringing the sting of tears to eyes for a moment as the borrowed shirt dropped down and seemed to swallow her small frame, resting finally at her knees.

"Well?" his voice came from behind the door.

She opened it, finding S'nara gone and gave him a scowl, tugging at the shirt in distaste.

"Don't tug at it, that's a perfectly good shirt." he chided lightly.

She pulled at it again for good measure, looking up at him defiantly.

He just chuckled and shook his head,"Okay, okay, just don't tear any holes in it."

She stuck her tongue out at him and sat on the bed, letting her legs dangle for a moment over the edge, swinging them idly and watching with detached interest.

"Tear holes in wha?" a voice floated into the room, she let out a small gasp and pulled her legs to her chest and began to tremble, purple eyes wide in fear.

"It's okay, kiddo. That's just Kraglin, he's here to pick us up." The Terran reassured.

"You two ladies wanna hurry up? Cap'n's itching to get goin'," 'Kraglin' eyed her for a moment then stated,"Looks like nothin' but bones."

"Lot better than she was." the younger man pointed out.

The older man shrugged loosely," All I know's Cap'n's not gonna like to see his units wasted. Better hope she's worth it," she glowered at him and he chuckled," 'N fiesty too. Ya just a shuttle ride away from ya new home girly."

She gave Peter a pleading look as if to ask if she absolutely had to go.

"Sorry kiddo, we gotta go."

She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh no, don't even start -"

But it was too late as amethyst eyes locked onto his giving him what would be the Terran equivalent of a puppy dog look.

"Okay, okay, here." The Terran sighed resigned, managing to get his Walkman loose from his pocket, handing the bulk of it into her awaiting hands and putting the headphones on her head careful to avoid the healing wound. She gave him a small satisfied smile as he pushed the button and the soft music began to play.

Kraglin snickered, "Who knew that thing would be useful."

"Ready?"

She nodded her approval, small sliver fingers clutching the Walkman as if it was her lifeline as they moved through the hall.

By the time they reached the shuttle, she was fast asleep in Peter's arms.

Consciousness came back to her slowly as she found herself lying on a cot in a room much larger than the one she had in the hospital. Blinking in confusion she tried to get her bearings and found that the cot was on the far wall of dull grey room, there was a desk with a chair to her right both of which were also grey, next to that was a worn dresser - grey again- and across the room in front of her was a door, to her left was a much smaller door to what looked like a bathroom. She felt a shiver go up her spine and she began to wonder if her fate now was truly better than that of the rest of her family. Pulling her legs to her chest in a vain attempt to make herself warm and smaller she stared at the door across the way until the image of it was burned into the back of her eyes.

No one came.

Of course they wouldn't, the little voice in her head said with a vicious grin.

"_No one will come for you," the voice continued tauntingly," they are all dead as you will be."_

_She was back at the ore mines, several miles below the moon's surface, the smell of mold and sweat filled her nostrils. Someone coughed next to her, Nesian, her cousin, he was trying not to jar his broken arm during his coughing fit but didn't succeed as it slipped from his grip and fell dangling loosely as though hanging by a single tendon. Her stomach churned with disgust as she turned away afraid to be sick, turning her eyes onto the towering Kree warrior that was eyeing them warying. A blue skinned female glanced at what remained of the survivors of the shuttle crash dark eyes cold and void of emotion. The green skinned female folded her arms across her chest and looked a bit bored, but alert while the darker skinned man who had cyborg parts coming from his head yelled orders to the faceless warriors that had marched them straight down into the depths of the mine where the air was thick with dust. They raised their weapons at her father._

_The part cyborg said something in a language she didn't recognize._

_Her father replied back evenly._

"_Liar." the Kree warrior roared, his thunderous voice nearly shook the cavern and caused her to jump. In a few large strides he covered half the distance of the cavern to come face to face with her father who stood his ground defiantly," They are here. You will tell me where they are."  
><em>"_They are a myth."_

"_It is no myth."_

"_Your people have always been so willful. Even in being told children's tales you believe every word."_

_The blue skinned man beckoned to the cyborg man standing near him, who handed him an over sized metallic looking hammer " I will find it and wipe your species from the galaxy starting with you."_

_Before she could open her mouth to shout a warning to her father, the hammer caught the back of his skull his head into two even halves. A shrill scream filled the air causing everyone to cringe for a few moments before it died on her lips. She sank to her knees reaching out to her father's now lifeless body on the floor, his dreadlocks sprawled out with a look of permanent shock on his face. Her vision blurred and warped as tears filled her eyes, she touched his face trying to get him to get up, move, talk to her anything. Unaware of the string of incoherent words spilling from her mouth. _

_Arms pulled her away from him and she wailed trying to go back to him. _

_He needed her, he could hear her, he just needed a few more moments._

"_Addy." a soft voice murmured, trying to calm her as a strong arm wrapped itself around her as the words jumbled and she was bawling against the solid warm chest that belonged to the arm. _

A banging noise on the walls jolted her awake, the sobs dying on her lips. Her heart was thundering in her chest, she tried to curl up, but found her hands trembling so bad that it was nearly impossible to gather her knees to her chest, so she scrunched down in the middle of the bed gathering her chest to her legs. Her stomach lurched several times darkly threatening to expel contents that weren't there.

The lurching was replaced by flip flops until it eased and it was then the tears came fast and furious, it was as though someone had turned the faucet on and left it on, as she began to start sobbing in earnest, her chest burned with trying to take in air between sobs and her shoulder and head throbbed in and out of unison.

The sobs finally died down as exhaustion finally caught up with her and she drifted.

The doors hissed open jolting her awake. Raising her head slightly she watched the man who was referred to as 'Kraglin' walk in briskly with an orange rectangular tray in his hands that held a plate and what looked like blob of grey mush.

The smell of burnt hit her nose and she turned away from the smell slightly keeping a wary gaze on him.

"Didn't know them meds would keep ya out that long. Bet ya want somethin' to eat." he said, moving quickly towards her with the tray.

She let out a small whimper, eyes widening in fright as she kicked off the blankets on the cot, trying to get away from him.

"Whoa, easy there," he stopped, changing his direction, moving towards the desk instead, putting the tray down slowly on it,"Thought Pete was pullin' my leg tellin' me ya startle easily. Got ya some food from the mess, water an' ya meds are here too."

She felt her heart thumping in her chest so loudly she thought he could hear it.

"Well, if there's nothin' else. I'll be back in the mornin'." he said and turned to leave, the doors hissing shut behind him.

She sat and stared at the tray as though it was an intruder, making her way slowly to it, she grabbed the yellow pill and the tiny white one and the glass of liquid, tossing the pills in her mouth and gulping some of the liquid down. Putting the container back and crawling back onto the bed.

Kraglin came back in the morning as promised, more than happy to get away from Yondu who was still seething from the amount of units he spend at the medical facility.

The Terran had tried to argue that they had done the right thing and should feel good for it, but an all too familiar shrill whistle sounded from the Centaurian's lips as he reminded Pete that the only thing to feel good about is getting a job done and having units at the end of it. With another whistle the yaka arrow was recalled and once again the boy's life was spared, Yondu grinned and strode towards him, putting an arm around his shoulder and lead him towards the cargo bay.

The Xandarian was more than thankful he wasn't on the receiving end of his captain's temper, knowing that he was now in charge of the girl, until Quill got back into Yondu's good graces or whenever Yondu felt like dealing with her, whichever happened first. He went dutifully to the mess to get another tray of food and to the small infirmary to get her medications.

Once the tray was loaded up with a brownish mush he headed down the hallway and tapped in the code and the doors whooshed open.

He heard a groan from underneath the blanket and couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him, as he moved towards the desk and found the food on the tray still there, but the water and pills gone.

Switching out the trays as she poked her head over the blanket, her eyes still half closed from sleep, watching him cautiously.

"I ain't gonna hurt ya if that's what ya thinkin'." he said.

She gave him a dubious look.

"Ya need to eat, though." he noted lightly.

She scowled.

Her second and third full days on the ship passed in the same pattern; Kraglin would come in replace the tray that was sans medication and liquid with a new ones. He decided after removing her tray that if she wasn't going to eat mess food, a protein bar would at least sustain her until they got a chance to do a supply run. He left it on the tray as well and had a small amount of satisfaction to see the wrapper there but the bar gone.

On the fourth day, he decided to forgo his daily walk to the mess, she wasn't eating the food anyways, no need to waste more than necessary, instead he went straight to the infirmary get her meds and headed towards her room.

An all too familiar blue form leaned against the bulkhead near the door, grinning widely as though he knew something that the Xandarian man didn. Kraglin felt a lump in his throat forming and his palms begin to sweat slightly.

"I see yew've taken it 'pon yewrself to not feed her." Yondu drawled, eyes fixed squarely on his.

"I -"

"She ain't been eatin'." it was a statement not a question.

He nodded quickly, voice failing him.

"Well go on then."

Kraglin typed in the code with sweating fingers trying to collect himself before the doors slid open.

"Hey girly," he found himself saying upon entering.

Purple eyes glanced up from the half twisted strands of white hair in her face, she was sitting up legs cross in front of her, two fingers on the strand, twisting it quickly she pushed the rest of the hair out of her face.

"I figured I bring ya a protein bar, since the mess food ain't workin for ya." he pulled it out of his pocket stepping close enough to hand it to her.

Silver fingers took it and found the beginning of the wrapper, unraveling it and taking a bite, chewing slowly.

"Ya can't survive on them bars alone girly." he noted thoughtfully.

She scowled.

"Cap'n ain't happy." he stated,"And when he ain't happy," he made a slicing motion across his neck.

She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head as if not understanding the motion, finishing the bar and crumpling the wrapper up. He took it from her and offered her the pills.

She took one of each.

"Feelin' better?"

She nodded and tilted her head back far enough that he could see the beginning of a scar on her lower neck.

"Those clothes 'o Quill's make ya look even smaller."

She pulled her legs to her chest which added to the effect of making her look smaller and a lot younger than she was.

"Anyways, I'll see ya in the mornin'."

He felt her eyes on him as the doors opened and slid closed behind him, nearly jumping out of skin seeing Yondu.

"Yewr gettin' soft," the blue skinned man growled lowly and with an abrupt turn walking into the room.

She glanced up idly as the doors hissed open again and jumped at the sight of a blue skinned man in a dark coat briskly walking in. A shrill whistle caused her to cringe and she moved to place her hands over her ears, watching as a red and silver arrow slipped from the inside of the man's jacket and looped through the air lazily, while the whistling continued until the arrow was hovering mere inches from her face.

She reached out to grab the arrow, to examine it closer. A malicious grin spread on the man's face as her fingers came in contact with the glowing red arrow, a sizzle soon followed as did the smell of burnt skin. She pulled her burnt fingers back quickly, sticking them into her mouth, purple eyes shooting Yondu a look that could easily kill.

He chuckled and with another shrill whistle and the arrow returned back to the inside of the man's jacket.

" Seems to me, yew decided the mess food ain't good enough for yew," he grinned showing gold and white teeth, before the smile dropped suddenly,"Yew got two choices missy: either yew git eatin' or yew rot 'n I sell yewr pieces."

Her amethyst widened in horror.

He grinned,"Yew might not talk, 's fine by me, less blabberin' I gotta hear, but I know yew ain't dumb. Whateve' happened 'fore Quill found yew 's no concern o' mine. Next time I come'n 'ere will be to start yewr trainin' like it or not missy, yewr a Ravager now."

The next morning Kraglin came in and was quite surprised to find her sitting at the desk as if awaiting his presence.

"Well mornin' to ya too." he said trying to hide his astonishment, placing the tray in front of her and she poked the food with a fork and a took a few steady bites.

True to his word the blue skinned man showed up the next morning, not long after Kraglin had come in and she had managed to eat half of the mysterious mush.

"Alright missy, trainin' begins today." he announced

She raised a quizzical eyebrow at the Centaurian, pulling her legs up to the chest while posed on the chair. She could use some form of entertainment, the nightmares weren't subsiding much and she was beginning to get really bored.

"Fer one, yewr name's too damn long, it'll be Adra from now on, got it?"

She nodded quickly knowing that this man was not one to be trifled with, especially after the Xandarian's warning from a few days ago. She perched her chin on the top of her knees keeping a wary eye on him.

He grinned catching her look, showing a few gold and white teeth,"Yewr smart enough not to trust me. 'N yew shouldn't. That's yewr first lesson 'n that one's free. 'Fore we get to yewr actual trainin', gonna have some o' the crew meet yew 'n see what skills yew got."

Her brow crinkled slightly a look of confusion coming over her..

"Kraglin'll show yew the gym, yew ain't doin' no good jus sittin' here all day. Then he'll take yew to see Ra'mer first to check what languages yew can read 'n write, then Horuz for some weapons."

The doors hissed open revealing the spiky haired Xandarian standing there,"Alright, let's get goin' girly, Cap'n got a lot he wanna cover."

She tugged at the boot laces of her borrowed dark brown boots and stood up taking a few steps hesitantly, they were definitely too big, but would have to do given she had nothing else.

He glanced at her and noted," Looks like we'll 'ave to get ya things that fit."

She stepped out the door and stopped holding up her hand against the brilliant white light that illuminated the hallway, she began to back up into the room when a voice stopped her.

"Hang on girly," Kraglin said handing her a pair of large black goggles," read that ya can't handle the lights. Dimmed 'em in the room, but can't do that 'ere."

She immediately pulled them over her head and blinked slower trying to let her eyes adjust to the much dimmer light. They covered a good portion of her forehead and giving her eyes a subtle grey tint.

"Better?"

She nodded.

"Good. I'ma show ya the gym first, so you know that straight off. Then we'll pass by the mess. Figured ya might want to know where the food comes from, the protein bars are stored there too 'long with some dried food n'case there's no one on mess duty."

He led her down the long grey metallic halls, their boots clanking against the grated floor.

"Alright, here's the gym. Cap'n wants us all ta stay in fightin' shape. "

Doors slid open revealing a room nearly five times the size of hers with various exercise some of which she recognized from the community center on her homeplanet - she felt a pang of homesickness for a moment before mentally brushing it aside - there were a few pieces of equipment that piqued her interest, one in particular caught her attention as she saw two men floating by a glass window. She drew closer to it curious. One of the men fired a laser gun at the other, the target dodged but barely.

"That's the zero gravity fightin' room," Kraglin said behind her causing her to jump slightly, but she kept her eyes on the men in the room as they kicked off the walls and headed towards each other grappling and spinning with the force of their of trajection.

She watched for a few more moments before turning away.

"Ready?"

A nod was the reply.

Another walk down the hall and to the left this time, doors slid open to reveal a room even bigger than the gym with windows along the sides, rows of tables and chairs set up in the middle of the room and along the wall with the windows.

He chuckled at her astonishment," Never been on a real spacecraft 'fore, eh girly?"

She shook her head.

"Well, this 'ere's the mess. Nothin' much to it. Tables 'n chair's 'n all that. Food's decent, cooks vary."

She glanced around for a moment, her eyes drifting back to the windows watching the stars drift past.

"Ya good?"

A nod.

"Alright, that's the end of the fun part 'o the tour." he said approaching a cylindrical room at the end of the hall and stepping in.

She looked at him quizzically, following him. The door slid closed and they were ascending several floors up.

"We're gonna visit Ra'mer, he's our language expert. Fine tunes our translators, even teaches us anythin' vital to missions. He'll be the one to see what else ya need to learn 'n such. "

The lift stopped and opened, he strode forward a few paces, and stopped at the third grey door to the right.

They went into a small gray room where a man with a mechanical eye was looking at a tablet in front of him. He looked up and Adra couldn't help but stare at his eye, it moved just like his other one but it made a very faint whirring noise as it did.

He looked at Kraglin and then her.

"This the one?"

"Yeah."

"Adra is it?"

She nodded.

"Hmph." he said looking down at her, she glanced away quickly.

He handed her tablet," Try 'n see what you can make o' that."

She took the tablet eagerly and sat on the sofa across the room, drawing her legs to her chest and laying the tablet on top.

Silver fingers glided over the white words on the black screen, purple eyes focused on the screen in concentration, missing the glances between the two men.

First it asked her a few simple questions, what language she wanted to take the initial test in, she scrolled down and selected her native tongue, Onarian. Then it asked her to match the words with their translation in the three common languages and gave her the option to type a response in another language if she so choose.

The next part made her listen to a disembodied voice speak while she translated, she frowned at some of the Xandarian phrases understanding the gist, but having a problem translating it.

The final part was typing in the different languages, it took her a bit longer to think of the proper sentence structure in Xandarian, she always flip flopped the verbs and nouns. She rolled her eyes in annoyance as it asked her to conjugate a few of the verbs struggling through it as it was never one of her strong suits.

After what seemed like hours she looked up and was slightly startled to find Ra'mer nearly hovering over her. Handing him the tablet and pulling her legs closer, wrapping her arms around them.

He took it, scrolling through the results and looked at her curiously.

"Wha?"  
>"She knows Kree, quite a bit of Xandarian and of course Onarian, but apparently there's a lower dialect she added that our translators can't pick up."<p>

Kraglin looked at her and shrugged,"Well, she's the one who would know."

"I can add it to the database." he offered

"Dunno if that will be needed. Ain't said a word since Quill found her."

He shrugged,"Well lemme know."

The Xandarian nodded and proceeded to walk out of the room, Adra followed.

He paused in the hallway for a moment

"Next we're going to weapons storage. 'fore we do, lemme warn ya bout Horuz, he's protective of the guns, so lookin' at 'em wrong may set 'im off."

Her eyes widened.

"Don' worry he won't hurt ya, just got a bit of a temper 's all."

They took the lift down several levels until it felt like that were in the very bowels of the ship.

"This is pretty far from the gym, had one too many incidents of weapons missin' 'n such and didn't 'ave room for it all. So this is the last floor 'n our last stop."

The door slid open directly to a room that had to be the entire size of the ship with metal shelving on both sides of nothing but various weapons; guns, armor, batons, knives, daggers, shields, anything and everything she could have imagined seemed to be in this one room as she found herself looking around and lost herself for a moment bumping into something round and soft.

"Sure as hell is a curious one," a voice above her grumbled amused.

Her heart leapt into her chest and she back peddled quickly, meeting the scruffy bearded older Xandarin who belonged to the belly.

"That she is."

"Ya got a name, girl?"

"Adra." Kraglin supplied, while she was trying to collect herself, eyes wandering along the shelves, frowning slightly at some of the weapons she recognized as Kree build.

"A mute?"

"Seems to be." the skinnier man replied with a slight shrug, hands following eyes as he moved towards a weapon similar to his own gun but upgraded with a new casing.

"Hmm.. well she's hope she can handle a weapon, won't be much use otherwise. 'N don't touch that."

The sound of a hand hitting skin broke her concentration for a moment before she continued to gaze upon one of the guns.

"Damnit, wasn't touchin'" came the defensive answer.

"Ya were 'bout to." came the gruff reply, then he turned to her,"which one ya wanna try?"

She looked up at him and then at the weapon before her.

"This here's a modded stun gun, nothin' too fancy 'bout it, stuns'em for 30 seconds give er take," Horuz said, pulling it from where she was looking, then showed her the dial on the side" if ye turn up the volts ye stun'em for longer. Got it?"

She nodded.

"Ready to giver 'er a whirl?"

The comm screeched overhead, causing her to jump and flinch.

"Still ain't fixed that yet?" Kraglin asked cringing.

"Nope, ain't got time been catalogin' weapons."

He sighed heavily, then caught Adra's gaze," Duty calls."

"Want me to watch 'er?"

"If ya can."

Horuz shrugged, loosely" Don' see why not."

"Alright, be back as soon's I can." he said more to himself than anyone else before getting into the lift and disappearing. With that she was left in the care of the much older and rounder Xandarian.

"Let's get to it then, Adra's it?"

She nodded.

"Think ya want to go a few rounds?"

She nodded, unable to stop herself from making grabby hands for the weapon.

He chuckled," Let's start with a big target and see how ya aim is."

After a few test fires she turned to look at him, he nodded his approval," Beginner's luck. Let's see ye hit a movin' target. Symer, com'ere."

"Wha ya want?" a dark scaled humanoid quered, poking his head from around the corner. "Com'ere."

He walked around the corner with a box full of scraps and wires in his arms.

"Hol' still," then to the girl," Go 'head girly."

She gave a slight nod and lined up the weapon for the shot.

"Yer trustin' her with that?" his tone turned defensive with a hint of anger, looking between the weapons master and her.

"Hol' still damnit," came the impatient growl.

Pulling the trigger a bolt of blue electricity shot from the weapon and hit him square on the side of his knee, crashing down on his other knee the box going down with him releasing the contents of springs, wires and other various scraps of metal. He cursed furiously in the language her translator couldn't quite catch. After a few moments he gathered himself up, glowered at her and then the man who encouraged her,"Fuck man, Yondu's gonna have a fit if them scraps are broken."

The burly Xandarian waved Symer's comment away with a chuckle, patting Adra on the back,"Hotdamnit girl, ya got a good 'nough eye. Been wanin' ta do that for long 'nough" then noticed she was picking at the metal encasement with a screwdriver she picked off the bench next to her," "What are ya doin'?"

Adra shook her head slightly, eyes never leaving the weapon continued to strip it down, examining the wires and the charger, using the screwdriver to make a slight adjustment and putting it back together.

"Told yer not to trust her." Symer grumbled, bending over to get the last few pieces of scrap that fell out of the box.

She aimed the gun at him.

"Oh no-" he started but was caught off as he was hit in the chest with a large blue electric jolt causing him to collapse and spasm on the floor for a moment before lying deathly still.

"Did ya kill 'im?" he inquired somewhat excitedly.  
>She shook her head and held up a finger motioning for him to wait.<p>

Symer's chest rose sank suddenly as he took in a long raspy breath and coughed, Horuz leaned against the table amused as the fellow Ravager slowly pulled himself up, coughing.

"Guess I oughta let Kraglin know ya got weapons covered."

Kraglin couldn't help the grin after hearing the news when he came back half an hour later, walking her back to her quarters.

"Ra'mer left ya a present. Figured it would be easier if ya can type since ya don't talk."

She glided her fingers over the small silver tablet, looking at it with appreciation.

"We're gonna be makin' a pass by Exnar VI, gonna land fer a bit, refuel and restock. Figured ya might want to git out and walk 'bout."

Her skin shimmered and began to slowly turning to a light shade of blue.

"Ya feelin' alright ?" he asked looking at her with concern.

She looked away embarrassed, as her skin turned the same shade as the Yondu's and faded back to silver. Then realizing she had a tablet, turned it on and typed quickly.

**Thank you.**

"Ya welcome, though I doubt Symer's too happy with ya right now, but he's a jerk. How's 'bout eatin' in the mess tonight?"

She hesitated and typed.

**Do I have to?**

"Only if ya want to,or ya can eat here."

**Here please.**

"Okay."

Kraglin brought a tray of what looked like something actually edible. He recognized slices of bread, chunks of meat and what he suspected was some form of a gravy that glistened under the hallway lights.

She was sitting cross legged on the cot deeply engrossed in something on the tablet when he came in. She looked up at him and offered him a small smile as he put the tray on the desk.

"Anything else girly?"

She shook her head.

"Alright then, see ya in the mornin'"

It had nearly been nearly two weeks since she came on board. Her days were filled going to the gym, working with Horuz to repair burnt out or broken weapons and managing to stay out of the rest of the crew's way.

After one particularly grueling sparring session with Kraglin, which left her bruised and tired, she was walking back down the hallway, she paused for a moment wiping the sweat off her brow when she accidentally bumped into a crew member.

She tried to brush past them, keeping her head down to avoid the brightness of the lights and to make a quick escape back to the safety of her room. Before she could get another step further she was suddenly grabbed by her forearm and was pulled back to face the person she had bumped into.

The man was twice her height and had two sharp fangs that stuck out from underneath his top lip, he grinned ferociously showing her that the rest of his teeth were just as pointed and sharp. His dark eyes seemed to glow with resentment. She recognized him instantly as the man Horuz had her use as target practice.

"It was only a matter of time before I ran into you. Been keepin' an eye on you." her eyes went wide for a moment reflecting the fear she felt, darting back and forth as if looking for a way out, he inched closer," Horuz ain't here to save you this time."

She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"Go ahead 'n try to scream," he growled lowly getting even closer so that she had no choice but to back up to the bulkhead," No one's interested in savin' a murderer."

Her heart began to race, the tendrils of fear beginning to creep up on her and clench.

"Did you know what your species destroyed my home and harvested all the natural resources?  
>he asked idly as if conversing about the weather, "and you know what they did after that?"<p>

She shook her head numbly, frozen by adrenaline and his piercing black eyes. She barely noticed that he had grabbed her arm in a steel grip.

"They took the warriors and killed them, leaving widows and children while your people experimented and tortured them. No matter how sorry you think you are, you aren't sorry enough."

He tightened his grip on her and he began to twist it slightly, she tried to roll with it- something Kraglin had taught her to do when someone grabbed her- but couldn't help the small cry of pain that escaped her lips as his fingers began to bruise her skin, his jagged claw like nails digging into her skin.

"That's right, cry because that's all I hear you do at night. Cry for those you've lost and while you're at it cry for those whose blood rests on your hands. Your murderous traitorous little wench trying to lead us into the trap of deception. But I won't fall for it and neither will the rest of us who can see who you really are."

Something crawled slowly against her skin, she dared to look and found that blood was trickling down from where his nails were, she pulled away his claws scraping skin, but he moved to twist her arm again meaning to break it. This time she successfully twisted with and kicked him as hard as she could, missing his knee but connecting with his upper thigh. He faltered for a moment and she hesitated a second too long. He rushed at her and slammed her hard against the bulkhead with a sickening thud, stars exploded in the back of her head for a moment threatening to turn into her darkness. She blinked rapidly to reorient herself as she reached for the bulkhead to pull herself up slowly.

He laughed cruelly at her efforts.

Look at the mighty Onari, unable to fight against a lesser opponent."

Symer got close to her making a grab for her wrist again, but she managed to get a hold of the slight ridge of his left cheekbone and pulled downwards causing her jagged nails to catch skin and drag across his face.

He shouted in pain and let go of her momentarily, the left hand going to his face and the right slapped her so hard she stumbled backwards for a moment, the sting of the slap still ringing in her ears. He rushed her again and used his full weight to pin her bodily to the bulkhead his right hand wrapped securely around her neck lifting her up with just his arm.

"You bitch, Ima strangle the life out of you."

She gasped, trying to fight off his arm, but he was much stronger and she felt her limbs growing heavier by the minute. Just as she was about to give into the darkness she heard a shrill whistle and the familiar glow of the Yaka arrow at her assailant's neck.

"Let 'er go, 'fore yew git a new hole to breathe from."

He hesitated the hatred glowing in his dark eyes and finally reluctantly let go, she crumpled to the floor coughing loudly.

"Now go see the medic 'fore I change my mind."

Yondu recalled his arrow and held out a hand for her. She eyed it cautiously for a moment before deciding to take his offer. Being pulled to her feet quicker than intended she stumbled forward for a moment.

"Yew need to learn to defend yewrself better. Since Symer is at the medic, I'll have Kraglin take a look a yew."

She nodded slowly and walked unsteadily to her room, glad to be able to peel off her overshirt leaving her in a tank top, revealing the jagged scars from the knife wounds on her shoulders. Adra managed to clean off her arm, seemingly satisfied with her attempt at first aid, she moved toward her desk to finish up the project she had been working on for the past few days.

She looked up when the doors slid open as Kraglin came in with a tray, he whistled lowly upon seeing the bruises on her shoulders and face, placing the food on the table near her," Yondu told me 'bout the fight. Symer won't be bothering you again." he pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket, she moved away apprehensively," Gotta check ya for a concussion's all. "

He sat down and slowly made the move to turn on the flashlight and shine it on his hand to illustrate that it wouldn't hurt her, she seemed to relax a little and let him get closer.

"Turn to face me." he instructed quietly.

She did, not without a slight wince while twisting to face him.

"Now look at the wall behind me."

She looked and he shone the flashlight in one eye then the other she grimaced and blinked furiously when he was done.

"Ya got lucky. I've seen 'im take down Krull soldiers without batting an eye," he put the flashlight back into his pocket and made a move to get up when his hand brushed against a small square object, picking it up and examining it he chuckled softly" Well ain't that something, Quill left quite the impression I see."

She watched him inspect it carefully and after a few moments handed it back to her.

" Don't worry to much 'bout Pete, he'll be back soon. Him n' Yondu argue, but he can't stay away. 'Sides he'd want to check on you, been nearly two weeks since you been here. Ya could prolly learn somethin' from 'im and keep 'im outta trouble."


	4. Peter

Chapter 4 - Peter

The muscle in the small of her back pulsed rhythmically breaking her concentration, with a heavy sigh she put down her tools and made a move to the cot laying on her side, curling up slightly bringing her knees to her chest and holding them there with her arms waiting for the twitching to stop. After some time it did and she slowly stretched out testing it to make sure it wouldn't come back. Feeling satisfied that it wasn't returning, she went back to her latest project, a small metallic orb with several sensors built in, frowning she realized she was missing a few wires and an extra piece of metallic casing.

Adra sighed and shoved her feet into her boots and grabbed her tablet to make the short trip to the cargo bay.

It didn't take her long to find the wires she needed and was able to head back to her room when she heard a faint melody coming from the back of the cargo bay. She frowned it was oddly familiar somehow, but not something she could place immediately. Walking towards the noise it didn't take long for the melody to turn into a song with actual words, the translator picked them up for her and she found herself remembering what it was from, Peter.

His back was turned to her scanning the orange and blue ship before him while humming to the music.

Adra glowered at the back of his head for a moment, tapping her foot impatiently against the metal floor. A few moments later he did a slight twirl and nearly jumped back in surprise at seeing her standing there glaring at him.

"Whoa, Hey kiddo. What happened to you?" he asked immediately noticing the bruises on her face and arms.

She pulled out a small tablet and typed on it furiously, fingers flying over the screen while her features were stuck in a scowl.

Several different characters appeared on the screen and she nearly shoved it into his face.

He looked at it for a moment turning his head to the side as if trying to decipher it.

"Sorry kiddo, can't read it."

She huffed impatiently and took the tablet back, deleting her previous words and typing in Xandarian.

**I was in a fight. Where were you?**

His cheerfulness melted away features turning dark. "Fight? With who?"

**It's just a few bruises. I've had worse.**

"Are you -"

**You left me.**

She glared at him accusingly.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck nervously, " Yeah, about that, let's just say Yondu wasn't exactly happy with me for a while, so yeah," he shrugged, transitioning smoothly into a less painful subject," So what have you been up to?"

She pulled a small blue cased stun gun from her belt on her pants.

"Do you know how to work that thing?" he asked dubious.

Purple eyes flashed with mischievousness before she pointed the gun at his shin and before he could move out of the way, she discharged the weapon sending a blue jolt of electricity from it causing the Terran man to yelp in surprise as he hopped on his uninjured leg for a moment.

She holstered her weapon and smirked.

"Guess I shoulda warned ya," Kraglin said amused, walking up towards them," She's a good shot 'n readjusted the volts so it packs punch."

"No kidding, damn kiddo." he muttered, rubbing his leg.

"Welcome back."

"Thanks. So what did I miss?"

"Well, Adra here's been making quite the impression on the crew."  
>"Oh?" he turned to look at her for an explanation, but she was already walking slowly around the ship carefully inspecting it.<p>

"Still not talking, huh?" The blonde man asked.

"Not a word. She's been helping Horuz get some of the guns back online."

The younger man's eyebrows went up, "He let someone touch his weapons?"

"Yeah, took quite a beating from Symer a few days back."

Quill's face turned dark.

"Which is why I wanted to talk to ya."

"Oh?"

"Mind takin' her for a bit? We got a bit of a situation that we need to take care of."

He shrugged,"It'll take a few hours to find and fix the microtears on the Milano from the asteroid belt I ran into on the way back, but yeah, sure."

"Adra's pretty handy with machinery, you might want to ask her to help."

Peter noticed she had come back around the ship looking closely at the hull of the ship.

"What do you think kiddo? Wanna help me patch her up and go on a few missions?"

She glanced at Kraglin for a moment as if asking permission, the Xandarian nodded, "Go ahead, prolly better for ya to learn a few things from Pete."

She nodded and typed on the tablet.

**What did you need?**

"Checking for microtears, ran into an asteroid belt and wanted to fix them before we head out again." the Terran explained.

**We?**

"Figured you'ld want to come along."

She shrugged.

**I hope it's not as dirty on the inside.**

Kraglin chuckled," Can't guarantee that girly."

Peter shot them both a hurt look.

"You think you can find and seal them?" The Xandarian asked the silver skinned girl.

A nonchalant shrug from her.

**Sure.** **Help me up.**

The Terran nodded lacing his fingers together for her to use as a step, pushing her up the side of the ship.

"Onto the wing?" he asked dumbly.

She scowled.

**Yes, you idiot.**

"Okay, okay." he said lacing his fingers together creating a step for her as she stretched out on the side of the ship. She gripped the wing and pulled herself up, disappearing for a moment then her head and arms reappearing.

"Careful."

Silver hand gestured, motioning for the soldering tool.

Peter hesitantly handed it to her.

"You sure you got it?" he asked

The hand waved him away quickly as she disappeared completely.

It took her the better part of two hours to fix the microtears on the top of the ship, finding herself humming to the music of his Walkman that he had placed near a container that would reverberate the sound for both of them to hear.

"How's it look up there kiddo?" he called up to her.

She peered down and gave him a thumbs up, he grinned.

"Ready to come down?"

She nodded, balancing on the edge of the wing for a moment.

"Be careful."

Adra scowled, then focused judging the distance from the wing to the ground and made the jump landing with the grace of a feline.

He looked at her wide eyed for a moment and she gave him a smirk, handing him the soldering tool back.

He nodded in affirmation," Job's done in half the time it wouldn't have taken me by myself. Thanks."

Adra nodded, grabbing her tablet and wires making a move to walk away.

"Did you want to come with me for a few missions?"

She paused, giving him a confused look.

"Kraglin says you could use the field experience and I need to get supplies. Yondu'll probably find a contact nearby for an easy smash and grab job."

The silver skinned girl seemed to consider it for a moment and then nodded.

"Great. Pack a few things, we should be ready go to in about an hour."

She walked off with a slight bounce in her step.

Peter coudn't help the slight smile that was spreading across his face, Yondu wasn't mad at him , he had units to his name, repairs were done on the Milano in half the time and he was going to take Adra on her first mission.

Life couldn't get any better at this point.

Well, they could but he would take what he could get.

Adra returned with a box in her arms, everything that she had managed to 'collect' in the past two weeks of being aboard the Eclector was in it, some spare clothes, various metal parts and wires a few 'borrow' tools, and the tablet tucked in securely on top. It was much more than she had originally when she became a Ravager, but it was still not as much as she had before… her thoughts drifted to the dark memories and she shook her head slightly willing them away.

The goggles over her eyes slid slightly down and fell to her neck, she blinked then squinted her eyes at the brightness of the lights.

With an annoyed sigh she put the box down on the ground for a moment to push the goggles back over her eyes and picked the box up again. It was in getting closer she heard voices coming from the back end of the cargo ship where the Milano was.

".. an don' ya let her get hurt." a low voice growled, she frowned recognizing it as Horuz.

What was he doing here? Had the news traveled that fast already.

"I will try my best." came Peter's solemn reply.

"Ya best ain't good 'nough, ya gonna do better."

"I will."

She walked closer frowning, were they talking about her?

She caught sight of Peter first who grinned at her.

"There you are, I was wondering if you decided against it."

The Terran took the box from her before she could protest leaving her to face Horuz.

"Don't ye let 'im steer ye into trouble." he warned.

Adra nodded her understanding.

He pulled something out from the inside of his jacket and handed it to her. It was a small metal dagger, she took it and looked up at him in bewilderment.

"Heard 'bout ya 't always be someone there to save ya." he said by way of explanation, then looking at the Milano and then her," Keep the charge on ya weapons 'n return 'em in one piece."

She was able to nod when she was pulled into a quick and sudden hug. She flinched slightly at the sudden contact but found herself oddly comforted by the Ravager's weapons specialist and returned the squeeze.

"Better git on board, girly." he said releasing her and giving her a pat on the shoulders.

Adra gave him a slight smile and Horuz returned it with a grin of his own.

They left the bowels of the Eceltor quickly thanks to Peter's skillful piloting. She settled herself in the co-pilots chair watching with fascination and a bit of sadness as the Ravagers ship became a speck in the distance.

Peter's fingers glided over the panels setting their course and turning on the auto pilot, he turned to her," What do you say I give you a grand tour?"

She nodded absently eyes still trying to find what had been her home for the past few weeks.

"Alrighty then," he said with a grand wave of his arms," this is the top deck also known as the cockpit, has the best view of open space."  
>She folded her arms across her chest and scowled.<p>

"What?"

She huffed impatiently, reaching to grab the tablet she had tucked into her side.

"You've been in an M-class ship before."  
>She rolled her eyes, silver fingers tapping the device.<p>

**I've fixed them before.**

"Well, excuse me." he said feigning hurt.

**How long until we get there?**

"About 6 hours, why?"

She didn't answer, instead slipping out of the co-pilots chair making her way down the ladder, Peter followed her curiously as she settled herself at the table near the holoscreen, pulling up something on her tablet and with quick swipe brought to the holoscreen.

He frowned trying to understand what it was she was doing, it looked like schematics of…

"Is that an engine?" he asked unable to stop himself.

She shook her head and zoomed out on the image, clearly showing that it was a double barrelled laser cannon of sorts.

He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the metal beam," That's going to be too heavy for you to carry."

She shot him a glare that could rival one of Yondu's he shivered involuntarily.

He took the hint and made himself scarce.

Peter did peek in on her now and again, mainly when he remembered to between cleaning and charging his own weapons and mapping out their plan. In his defense, he was not used to having someone of the opposite sex on his ship for more than a few hours before he would a kindly ask them to leave (or make an excuse that he had to go, such as the case he been in several occasions) and despite his previous ship guests she was by far the quietest.

In his latest check he found the table that had been her makeshift workstation cleaned up, with the shell of the weapon that had been on the holoscreen earlier that day sitting to the side of the table. He stepped towards it and grabbed it carefully and was surprised by the lightness of the design.

"Well, shit." his whispered in slight awe.

A scream ripped through the ship, jolting Peter from his thoughts, disorienting him for a moment.

Another scream, this one sending chills down his spine and causing him to shiver involuntarily, it was coming from down the hall.

Adra.

He cursed softly rushing towards the cargo room.

The door slid open just as another scream came from her. He paused for a moment trying to get his bearings as the darkness of the room enveloped him as the door shut. He carefully made his way towards the cot where she was, knowing the layout without the aid of light.

"Adra." he whispered as he bent over where she was laying.

The blankets rustling was his only reply.

He reached out and grabbed her, finding a slim shoulder,"Adra, wake up."

He grunted as a fist connected with his arm, pain shooting up and down his arm and he moved closer and was nearly hit again, moving quickly he pinned her down. Of course, he didn't even consider that her legs were still free as she kneed him in the chest knocking his breath away, causing him to make an undignified "oomph" noise.

Peter gritted his teeth trying not to lose his patience, being awake or not she definitely packed a punch more so than he expected. He grabbed her right wrist and twisted it hard behind her back.

Something made a sickening snap noise and a gasp of pain escaped her.

Silence blanketed the room for a moment before the muffled sound of crying was heard.

"Shit," he muttered, letting go of her wrist once he realized what had just happened," Can you sit up?"

The crying stopped for a moment and the rustling of blankets and he saw the soft glow of her purple eyes met his.

He reached for the flashlight not wanting to turn on the room light for concern of blinding her, turning it on with a click he faced it away from them throwing the light behind them, she closed her eyes for a moment blinking away the brightness. Pulling her knees to her chest, it was then he saw it, her left wrist was bent awkwardly

Not only was her wrist very much broken, but it was much larger than her other wrist and beginning to turn dark blueish purple.

"Hang on" he said standing up and reaching for the kit that was on the metal shelf, pulling it down and opening it. Getting out a wrap and a splint, kneeling down again before he,r taking her wrist gently, she flinched at his touch.

"You were screaming, I tried to wake you." he explained keeping his eyes on her wrist, setting the split and carefully wrapping it.

She sniffled loudly wiping away the remnants of the tears that had already fallen.

"Can you move your fingers?" he queried after a moment's silence once he had finished.

She nodded slightly, pulling her wrist close to her body again as she tried to flex her fingers, they wiggled ever so slightly.

"Oh, almost forgot." He grabbed a canister from the open kit, popped the lid open and handed her two opaque yellow pills.

She eyed them suspiciously for a moment before he offered," Pain pills."

Adra took them from him silently, gulping them down.

He carefully put the kit back together and back on the shelf. She unwrapped the sheet that was still covering her legs and moved to stand, he offered his hand and she took it hesitantly,letting herself be pulled up.

"Want to watch me pilot for a bit?"

She nodded, seemingly afraid to move, following him up to the ladder and climbing them carefully one handed keeping her left wrist close to her chest.

Settling into the pilot's chair, he took the controls off auto pilot as she slide into the co-pilots chair, pulling her legs up to her chest and carefully resting her wrist on top of her knees.

" We should probably stop for some supplies because you're destroying my stock of protein bars."

In the corner of his eye, he caught her scowling at him.

"You know, it would be a lot easier if you would talk rather than have me guess what you want." he suggested lightly.

She scowled.

"That seems to be your favorite expression. The medic said you can talk, you're just choosing not to for some odd reason," he said thoughtfully, then he suddenly remembered his encounter with a very beautiful pink skinned woman whose voice was high pitched enough to crack the glass on the Milano. " Unless your voice is annoyingly shrill then I may not want to hear it."

She glowered at him for a moment and sighed heavily as if making up to her mind.

"'S not my fault I can't eat anything else." she uttered thickly, her voice slightly hoarse from disuse with a slight hint of a thicker accent.

"She speaks!" A witty little smirk twisted Peter's face, "What a show of sentience! Was that really so hard?"

She rolled her eyes, managing a deadpan reply, "Yes, I almost died from the effort."

"Well in my defense, I didn't know you were going to be so picky."

"I'm not picky." she replied defensively with a pensive frown.

"Are too. You would think staying in a hospital for two weeks would have made you less picky. "

"I just know what I like." A yawn cut off the rest of her retort and she sheepishly covered her mouth. She shifted her position so that one leg was folded underneath her and the other still bent up, propping up her wrist.

"Why do you steal?" she asked drowsily.

He was taken back by her question and in doing so answered honestly,"So I get paid."

"But it's wrong to steal."

"Well it's wronger to starve."

She frowned slightly.

"I learned early on, I don't steal, I don't eat. " he supplied to her unasked question.

"But you can learn a trade. " she countered.

He tried not to smirk at the unintentional slurring of her words, she was fighting to stay awake and as much as he wanted to tell her it was okay to go back to sleep, he wasn't want to push it.

"And be stuck in one place for the rest of my life? Working so that someone else can make units off of me, the legendary StarLord, no thanks."

"Storelord?" she said haltingly, as though trying to taste the word.

"Star Lord." He corrected," It's my outlaw name."

"Mmph." her eyes were now closed.

"You should have one too."

She shifted in the chair and mumbled sleepily," No, thank you."

Her head leaned against the headrest heavily as her chest began to rise and fall steadily with sleep.

For a moment he thought about moving her back to the cot, but decided to leave her where she was.

He had let her sleep for a good six hours and was quite surprised that she slept through the landing of the ship.

"Com'n kiddo, we're going on a field trip." he said nudging her right shoulder gently.

She yawned and uncurled herself from the chair, getting up and then wincing when she tried to use her injured wrist.

"Field trip?" she repeated perplexed.

"It's a supply run, but there's a marketplace and I figured you could use a few things or your own. Plus, the goggles that Kraglin gave you are too big."

They were weaving them back and forth amongst the various booths stopping in front of a an eyewear vendor.

She looked at him with disbelief.

"Go on." he coaxed, lightly.

She walked up the booth and began to look intently over the various goggles, and spectacles. A few of which she briefly swept her silver fingers over until she landed on a pair of grey ones.

Putting them on hesitantly and pushing them over her eyes.

The gray goggles blended with her silver skin, looking as though they were simply made for her.

"Can you see?"

She nodded.

"Good."

He paid the red skinned blob of a creative and headed toward a place he knew she would like.

"Next, tools."

Her amethyst eyes glimmered with excitement. He smiled down at her.

"If you're going to take things apart you might as well have the proper tools."

She animatedly looked over each tool kit and finally selected one.

It contained various wrenches, screwdrivers, a few pointy sharp tools and something that looked suspiciously like a small flame thrower.

The merchant gave him a quizzical look after seeing her select the item.

"Gift for a mechanic friend." he supplied with a shrug, paying that merchant. Who handed the rolled bunch of fabric to her.

He in turn handed it to the girl, she grunted for a moment under its weight but managed.

"And lastly, a bag. Can't have your losing stuff."

She selected the bag as well, the pouch itself as wide as she was, the strap hung across her shoulder.

While they were waiting he looked down to see her silver fingers brush over the bag in admiration.

"I'm glad you like it."

She looked up at him and he saw them mist over.

"Thank you." she mumbled humbly.

"Hey, hey, no need to cry. You hungry?"

She nodded eagerly.

They walked through the various food booths, some of which she vaguely recognized.

One booth with a rather large blob of an orange skinned creature caught her attention, she pulled away from his grasp slightly, drawing closer trying to figure out what form of possible animal the creature was cooking, it did squirm slightly when he- she assume it was a he- toss it onto the crackling flames coming from the container, just a little bit closer and she could almost -

An uproarious noise came from behind her and she all but shrieked in surprise. Her heart beat thudded in her ears. Her purple eyes wide in alarm, they darted back and forth as if looking for a place to hide.

"Sorry kiddo, guess one of those spices got up my nose," he snuffled, wiping his nose on his left sleeve. She scowled.

"That seems to be your favorite expression." he noted lightly.

She deepened the scowl, letting her nose crinkle in disgust.

"That," he sniffled again, eyes squinting for a moment as if going to do it again, she tensed, making a move away from him. He blinked a few times before his expression turned back to normal," was a sneeze."

She tilted her head, giving him a quizzical gaze.

"It's uh, apparently unique to Terrans. When we smell something that tickles our nasal passage, we do that."

She shot him a dubious look, turning her attention back to the orange being. To her disappointment the animal had been cooked and cut up.

"What? Don't tell me your species doesn't do something unique."

She tugged gently at the grip he had on her wrist.

"What?"

She tugged again, frowning at his hand.

He let go reluctantly. She stood where she was and closed her eyes, standing perfectly still.

"What are you-"

She huffed impatiently as if telling him to shut up and wait.

It was then he noticed her skin began to shimmer slightly and turn the faintest hint of blue, then darker nearly matching Yondu's skin tone and then it gradually going back to silver.

"Well, that _is_ unique." he remarked unable to contain his surprise.

After a few moments of roaming aimlessly and to her growing agitation they stood in front of a brightly colored booth.

"They have really great noodles and veggies here."

He got a head tilt and a perplexed purple gaze.

"Noodles?" he asked.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, as if to say of course I know what noodles are you idiot.

"Veggies? Vegetables? They're grown in the ground and harvested."

She raised an eyebrow at him and then nodded slowly as if trying to understand.

"You don't have veggies on your homeworld?" he asked in disbelief.

The mention of which caused her to tense rigidly.

"Sorry."

She scowled at him as if reprimanding him for saying sorry. He frowned and then realized she wanted to eat already.

"You know, it would be a lot easier if you would talk rather than have me guess what you want." he suggested lightly.

She scowled.

"Okay, Okay." he turned and waited for the slimy yellow skin creature to turn on of it's six tentacle-like eyes on him.

A bell dinged on the counter behind him signaling their food was ready.

Moment later he had two plates in his hands and was weaving through the sitting area to find them a spot.

"Viola! Noodles and veggies." he said, putting the plate in front of her as she settled into a somewhat unsteady wooden chair.

She sniffed it cautiously and blanched, pushing it away quickly as though it had uttered something to offend her. Her senses were on full alert, the smell assaulted her nostrils, causing her stomach to churn violently.

He was too busy shoving food into his mouth to notice anything but the plate move away from her.

"Nu-uh. I spent good units on it." he insisted finishing his bite, pushing the plate back in front of her.

She shot him a pleading look.

"Nope." he went back to his noodle dish happily.

She growled her discontent. Whether at the pasta or at him, he didn't care.

"You've never had veggies before. At least try it."

She poked at one of the offending "veggies" with her sharpened utensil, looking up at him to see if he was satisfied with her attempt.

"That's playing with it."

She stabbed it with the utensil and drew back as if it was going to attack her.

"Still playing." he commented, bored.

She scowled at him.

"It's not going to kill you. Oh wait," he suddenly clutched his chest made a gagging noise and fell over.

She peered over at the side of the table, worried.

He opened one eye and grinned.

"See? I'm still alive." he sat upright again and continued to dig in.

She huffed, still not convinced and proceeded to have a stare off with the revolting dish. Amethyst eyes still wary even as Peter finished his plate.

"You're just being stubborn."

She crossed her arms across her chest.

"Seriously?"

She glared at him and then at the pasta and shuddered violently.

He sighed, resigned, "I'll eat it all, if you eat just one bite. One bite."

She moved to push it away again but he blocked her.

"One. Bite. It won't kill you. Promise."

She shot him a dubious look.

Then hesitantly she reached for the sharpened utensil that still had a now cold orange slither of a vegetable on it. Looking up at him as if trying to plead her case one last time.

"Go on." he coaxed

Very slowly and very dramatically, she opened her mouth and placed the contents of the utensil in her mouth. Gagging when the offending object touched her tongue.

"Stop it." he reprimanded, his tone still soft.

The utensil dropped onto the plate with a clank. Purple eyes went wide with something close to fear as she looked around as if trying to find something to expel the disgusting food into.

"Nu-uh. Swallow."

She did so loudly, choking back a gag.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" he pulled the plate towards himself.

She shot him a look of pure malice that could how reviled one of Yondu's and hissed at him angrily.

He chuckled to himself, as he finished off her plate glancing up at her, he couldn't help but notice she was a tad shade paler.


End file.
